A cutting system of this kind is known from practice. In the case of this cutting system, the cutting machine is in the form of a guillotine cutting machine. Said guillotine cutting machine has a basic frame which accommodates the table, and also a gantry frame which is mounted in the basic frame and in which the cutting blade and, in addition to this, a gantry frame are mounted such that they can move. Before cutting, the sheet-like, stacked material which is supported on the table is pressed against the facing surface of the table by means of the pressing bar, and cutting is then performed by means of the cutting blade. The cut partial stack has a parallelogram cross section owing to the wedge shape of the cutting blade and has to be aligned into its cuboidal shape by means of the alignment device. This is performed by the alignment device, also referred to as a knock-up block in technical terminology, being moved manually against the side surface of the cut stack by the operator of the cutting machine, said side surface being arranged at an acute angle to the cutting plane. The alignment device serves not only to return the stack of cut material which has been displaced into the shape of a parallelogram to its original cuboidal shape, but also to align the cuboidal stack against a lateral stop of the cutting machine or a backgauge for feeding the stack beneath the cutting blade for the purpose of separating the next stack.
The alignment device, which can be manually manipulated, has various designs in practice. In one embodiment, it has two plates which are arranged at a right angle in relation to one another and which form support and/or alignment surfaces which are arranged perpendicular in relation to one another. In the region of the supporting surface, the alignment device is supported on the table, and the alignment device is moved, by way of its alignment surface, against the side surface of the stack, which side surface has been displaced into the shape of a parallelogram, or against the side surface of the stack which is in cuboidal form, in order, in the case of the displacement of the stack into the shape of a parallelogram, to align said stack into its cuboidal shape, or, when the stack is in cuboidal form, to align said stack in an exactly cuboidal manner or to align said stack against the side gauge or the back gauge of the cutting machine. In an alternative design of the alignment device, it is provided that the support surface and the alignment surface are arranged at an acute angle in relation to one another, and therefore said alignment device also has the function of preventing the stack of cut material, which stack is produced during cutting and therefore is displaced into its parallelogram shape, from tipping over. This stack, which is in the form of a parallelogram, is aligned by slightly tipping the alignment device about the edge between the support surface and the alignment surface, and therefore, as a result of the support surface being slightly pivoted about this edge, such that the alignment surface is positioned in a vertical manner.
In the case of the known cutting system, the cutting machine also has an electrical machine controller for functions of the cutting machine. Said functions are, for example, cutting indication by lowering the pressing bar until it is slightly above the stack of material which is to be cut, in order to obtain a reference line for the cutting line of the blade, when said blade penetrates the stack of material which is to be cut, on account of the front contour of the pressing bar, and further setting the pressing pressure of the pressing bar, furthermore controlling the movement of the backgauge, in particular the feed speed of said backgauge. Other functions relate, for example, to those of rotating the backgauge about a vertical axis or tilting the backgauge about a horizontal axis.
A cutting system with a cutting machine for cutting sheet-like, stacked material and with an alignment device, which can be manually manipulated, for manually laterally aligning the material against a flat surface of the alignment device, wherein the alignment device can be placed on a table of the cutting machine, is known, for example, from DE 31 01 911 A1.
EP 1 018 408 A1 describes a cutting system which has a cutting machine for cutting sheet-like, stacked material and an alignment device for laterally aligning the material against a flat surface of the alignment device. Although the alignment device can be manually manipulated in said document in order to position said alignment device in a specific position on the table, and to fix said alignment device there, the material is aligned by machine in the case of this alignment device.